The present invention is about a shredding machine suitable in particular for being used to collect and shred pruning sarments in vineyards and orchards, or material derived from trimming of fences and trees.
It is known that, after the fruit and grapes harvesting in orchards and vineyards respectively, the pruning of the plants is performed, during which a considerable quantity of pruning sarments falls on the ground, the modern working techniques requiring to remove them from the ground.
For this purpose, shredding machines are available on the market, able to collect and to shred the sarments, then leaving them to fall on the ground once shredded.
In this way, the sarments produced during the vineyard pruning are removed and reduced in their size, freeing the ground.
The shredded organic material generally remains on the ground, turning into a natural fertilizer for the surrounding grapes and fruit-trees.
All the shredding machines belonging to the prior art, although in their different specific embodiments, substantially consist of a frame on which a pruning sarments shredding group is installed, while the shredded material is scattered on the ground.
These shredders are generally connected, through proper fastening means, to respective operating machines which draw them along the land on which the sarments to be shredded are present.
The shredding group generally consists of a rotating drum, provided with outer blades which take the sarments from the ground and shred them, cooperating with respective counter-blades belonging to the frame of said shredding machine.
The rotating drum is put in rotation through a driving unit, generally belonging to the operating machine to which the shredder is connected, receiving the motion therefrom through proper transmission means.
In case of the land to be worked is particularly uneven or stony, shredders provided with picking means interposed between the shredding group and the ground are used.
The picking means comprise a rotating drum provided with outer teeth which perform the function to pick up the sarments from the ground and to convey them to the shredding group, which subsequently provides to shred them.
The presence of picking means makes easier to pick up the sarments from the ground if, as previously mentioned, it has a particularly complex and not uniform morphology, thus avoiding that the shredding blades are damaged in the contact with stones or other particularly hard materials.
The picking means are put in rotation in this case too, receiving the motion from the driving group belonging to the operating machine through proper transmission means of known type.
In both these executive embodiments of a shredding machine, the shredded material is discharged on the ground.
However, the cited shredding machines of known type have some acknowledged inconveniences.
A first inconvenience is due to the fact that the shredded sarments are scattered on the ground.
As a consequence, this material, essentially consisting of wood, has to be picked up from the ground to be used for other purposes, like for instance the manufacture of stove pellets or other.
It is evident that, in this case there is the inconvenience that another operation should be performed, with a consequent increase of costs.
Another inconvenience is due to the fact that, spreading the shredded material on the ground and becoming said material a fertilizer for the plants present therein, there is the risk to transmit possible diseases from diseased plants to healthy ones.
The risk of plant disease propagation and/or undesired cross-fertilizations is very considered in agriculture in general, and in particular in vineyard cultivation where, as a consequence, it is very important to maintain clean the ground surrounding the plants.